http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18709348
Royal Mails solution to this i.e. looking for a neighbour, is good for the customer, but given the number of frustrated attendance calls we presently have, it will add another 30 minutes to a duty whilst we look for a neighbour within reach. I actually have one customer that has a permanent note on her door saying leave at number ** if not in" ... the alternative address is 100 yards away and they are never in either !!!
Saturday used to be the saving grace for packets but we now leave the office so late that people on their weekend off work have already departed for shopping or leisure activities and we are no more successful than on a weekday.
I really appreciate that the increased packet trade has improved income for the business and our job security but customers have to appreciate that non deliveries are just as time wasting and frustrating for us as they are for them. Maybe drop boxes at customer premises are a better idea, fitted with a combination number or a sensor that responds to our scanners ?
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The parcel conundrum
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rhino49
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The parcel conundrum
We wish to serve - but we will not be servile
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FairyFoot
- Posts: 78
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Re: The parcel conundrum
I'm not sure I would want my parcels delivered to one of my next door neighbours - a nice neighbour said my other neighbour referred to me and my husband as Dumb and Dumber (not sure which of those two he said was me)
I am a Postcrosser, and penpaller. I send nice post.
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TrueBlueTerrier
- FORUM ADMINISTRATOR
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Re: The parcel conundrum
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18709348" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The Royal Mail move to ask people if they mind having parcels delivered to their neighbours is the latest effort to solve a thorny issue. How can people conveniently get parcels delivered when most are at work all day?
It's an experience almost all of us seem to share.
The swift, efficient world of online ordering meets the messy realities of the analogue world we actually live in. And it all seems to grind to a halt.
Richard Wilding is both a professor of logistics and supply chain management at Cranfield University and a victim of the parcel conundrum.
"We were expecting a gift to arrive, and the courier firm told us it had been delivered. We told them we hadn't received anything, and the company said it had been delivered to a hedge. We haven't got a hedge."
Some weeks later the box was discovered, sure enough in a hedge, about half a mile away from his house.
How does this sort of thing happen? Part of the problem seems to be that individual drivers are rarely incentivised to successfully deliver a parcel first time.
Some companies even count a missed-delivery card through the door as a successful delivery when making claims about their performance.
Possible solutions
Track the driver: Tracking data from couriers improves the first time delivery rate
Where's my customer?: Smartphone apps can help couriers locate their client
Delivery consolidation: Companies are starting to deliver to a consolidator's address. They hold onto parcels and re-deliver them to their client
Lock boxes: Storage boxes with pin code entry outside people's homes.
Locker delivery: Some companies allow delivery to a locker located at convenient locations, such as railway stations. Customers use a pin code.
No signature: With GPS location stamping, a driver can prove they are at your property, and even take a photo of the place they have left your parcel
Convenience shops: Increasingly late opening local shops will take delivery of parcels.
Keep customer in loop: Automated text messages and emails can let people know where their delivery is
Neighbour delivery: It is refreshingly old-fashioned and can build a sense of community
Use work: Many firms will take personal deliveries for staff
But the missed-delivery problem costs money as well as infuriating customers. In the UK 12% of deliveries fail first time, costing the industry an estimated £1bn in re-deliveries.
For most people it's the frustration of a Royal Mail missed delivery card lying on the doormat. People frequently complain that some postmen deliver them without even knocking in order to save time. The same allegation is made of commercial couriers.
Then there's the occasions when couriers delivering laptops or other valuables leave us waiting around all day before turning up at 17:59.
A trip to the Post Office depot at 7am can be an irksome burden. And some couriers take your item back to warehouses on industrial estates many miles away.
Courier Tony Rudder appreciates the irritation of the customer.
"I've been in myself waiting for a package, and it hasn't turned up. And then I've seen the little note on the floor saying they tried to deliver it. But I've been in all day," says Rudder. "It happens to everyone, even couriers."
But the courier has a defence.
"It's difficult for us too. You turn up at a house and no one's in. So you phone up the company and they try to get in touch with the customer and find out if it's OK to deliver it next door for instance.
"Often they can't get hold of the customer and you're standing there for half an hour or more wasting time."
As with most service industries of course you get what you pay for. Customers paying for premium services can expect to get phone calls chasing them if delivery can't be made.
One company suggested they'd be happy to follow people all over London trying to deliver a parcel as long as the customer paid for it. But most people opt for the cheapest option, or indeed free delivery, and that's where repeated attempts to deliver parcels make no financial sense.
Most courier firms will attempt delivery no more than three times, and few companies would make concerted efforts to find their customer unless they were paying for a top notch service.
Rudder works for eCourier, which was started when a failed delivery of some tennis tickets left its founder thinking there must be a better way.
The company devised an online tracking system using GPS which allows customers to see where the driver with their parcel is all the time.
"If our clients can see that the driver's stuck in traffic they at least feel they know what's going on," says Daniel Wright from eCourier.
There's nothing unusual in the technology. All courier companies can track their drivers. What's unusual is giving customers the power to do the same. Big courier firms will tell you if the parcel is in a depot or out for delivery, but not the precise coordinates.
Many people complain about the vague delivery promises made by most companies. A 12-hour delivery window, for instance, is not very helpful for busy people trying to get on with their lives.
But companies are increasingly narrowing down delivery times, and keeping customers better informed through text and email about when their delivery is due.
There's a big incentive for the retailer to get it right first time. Many clients don't know which company is delivering their order, but if something goes wrong it's the store where you bought the item which usually gets the blame.
"Your main point of contact is with the retailer," says Wilding. "And they're handing over responsibility for the delivery to another organisation. You've got to make sure they do it well. If they do, it will build loyalty and generate more business. But if you do it badly and use poor couriers it will cost your business an awful lot and customers won't come back."
Tracking technology can be used in other ways too. How about tracking the customer?
Blackbay, a company providing services to courier firms, has developed a smartphone app which enables delivery firms to find their customer even if they're not at the address they said they'd be at.
'My parcel arrived a year late'
Fiona contacted Radio 4's PM programme with her delivery drama.
My friend in New Zealand sent me a Christmas present in plenty of time. It arrived in the UK pronto, but I was out when Royal Mail tried to deliver it.
A card was left. I went to the depot to get it and was told it was too early to get it... come back tomorrow.
I went back the next day and they could not find it - "Leave it a week, please." A week later, and after a few unanswered phone calls, I went back again. Still missing.
I went back a few days later, after phoning yet again and being told to come and get the parcel.
Next day, I arrived at the depot, queued again and was told that because I had left it so long before collection, it had been sent back to New Zealand. Really. It had.
More than two months later and my friend in New Zealand was out when they tried to deliver it, but they left a card and he was excited that someone had sent him something.
Recovering from his disappointment, he decided to put it in his suitcase next time he came to the UK, but his luggage was lost.
I did get it in the end. A year after he posted it.
In case you are dying to know, it was a lovely shoe. Just one. Art, you know.
"The technology is quite straightforward," say Nigel Doust from Blackbay. "We're taking advantage of social media. Lots of people on Facebook or Twitter for instance can expose their location in a controlled way. This application uses that information to track you."
A customer specifies a delivery address but decides nearer to the delivery time that they'll be somewhere else to take delivery. Using the app they can allow the courier to track them using their handheld device to another location within a close distance of the delivery address.
Safeguards can be built in which limit the time someone can be tracked for, and who can actually track them. Also face recognition technology and a requirement for the customer to use a PIN number can be incorporated to ensure the parcel is delivered to the right person.
At the moment the app is still in development, but Blackbay believe it will be available to courier firms and clients within a year. Of course, initially at least, such a service would come with a premium.
Ultimately the solution to missed deliveries is likely to be a combination of low and high tech innovations. From neighbour delivery, to better communication with customers, to GPS tracking, slowly the misery of wasted time and wasted journeys to depots to collect parcels will hopefully become a thing of the past.
And fewer wasted journeys will also help to save the environment. Studies by Heriot Watt University have found a courier could try around 18 times to deliver a parcel and still use less CO2 than someone driving to their local depot to collect it.
The Royal Mail move to ask people if they mind having parcels delivered to their neighbours is the latest effort to solve a thorny issue. How can people conveniently get parcels delivered when most are at work all day?
It's an experience almost all of us seem to share.
The swift, efficient world of online ordering meets the messy realities of the analogue world we actually live in. And it all seems to grind to a halt.
Richard Wilding is both a professor of logistics and supply chain management at Cranfield University and a victim of the parcel conundrum.
"We were expecting a gift to arrive, and the courier firm told us it had been delivered. We told them we hadn't received anything, and the company said it had been delivered to a hedge. We haven't got a hedge."
Some weeks later the box was discovered, sure enough in a hedge, about half a mile away from his house.
How does this sort of thing happen? Part of the problem seems to be that individual drivers are rarely incentivised to successfully deliver a parcel first time.
Some companies even count a missed-delivery card through the door as a successful delivery when making claims about their performance.
Possible solutions
Track the driver: Tracking data from couriers improves the first time delivery rate
Where's my customer?: Smartphone apps can help couriers locate their client
Delivery consolidation: Companies are starting to deliver to a consolidator's address. They hold onto parcels and re-deliver them to their client
Lock boxes: Storage boxes with pin code entry outside people's homes.
Locker delivery: Some companies allow delivery to a locker located at convenient locations, such as railway stations. Customers use a pin code.
No signature: With GPS location stamping, a driver can prove they are at your property, and even take a photo of the place they have left your parcel
Convenience shops: Increasingly late opening local shops will take delivery of parcels.
Keep customer in loop: Automated text messages and emails can let people know where their delivery is
Neighbour delivery: It is refreshingly old-fashioned and can build a sense of community
Use work: Many firms will take personal deliveries for staff
But the missed-delivery problem costs money as well as infuriating customers. In the UK 12% of deliveries fail first time, costing the industry an estimated £1bn in re-deliveries.
For most people it's the frustration of a Royal Mail missed delivery card lying on the doormat. People frequently complain that some postmen deliver them without even knocking in order to save time. The same allegation is made of commercial couriers.
Then there's the occasions when couriers delivering laptops or other valuables leave us waiting around all day before turning up at 17:59.
A trip to the Post Office depot at 7am can be an irksome burden. And some couriers take your item back to warehouses on industrial estates many miles away.
Courier Tony Rudder appreciates the irritation of the customer.
"I've been in myself waiting for a package, and it hasn't turned up. And then I've seen the little note on the floor saying they tried to deliver it. But I've been in all day," says Rudder. "It happens to everyone, even couriers."
But the courier has a defence.
"It's difficult for us too. You turn up at a house and no one's in. So you phone up the company and they try to get in touch with the customer and find out if it's OK to deliver it next door for instance.
"Often they can't get hold of the customer and you're standing there for half an hour or more wasting time."
As with most service industries of course you get what you pay for. Customers paying for premium services can expect to get phone calls chasing them if delivery can't be made.
One company suggested they'd be happy to follow people all over London trying to deliver a parcel as long as the customer paid for it. But most people opt for the cheapest option, or indeed free delivery, and that's where repeated attempts to deliver parcels make no financial sense.
Most courier firms will attempt delivery no more than three times, and few companies would make concerted efforts to find their customer unless they were paying for a top notch service.
Rudder works for eCourier, which was started when a failed delivery of some tennis tickets left its founder thinking there must be a better way.
The company devised an online tracking system using GPS which allows customers to see where the driver with their parcel is all the time.
"If our clients can see that the driver's stuck in traffic they at least feel they know what's going on," says Daniel Wright from eCourier.
There's nothing unusual in the technology. All courier companies can track their drivers. What's unusual is giving customers the power to do the same. Big courier firms will tell you if the parcel is in a depot or out for delivery, but not the precise coordinates.
Many people complain about the vague delivery promises made by most companies. A 12-hour delivery window, for instance, is not very helpful for busy people trying to get on with their lives.
But companies are increasingly narrowing down delivery times, and keeping customers better informed through text and email about when their delivery is due.
There's a big incentive for the retailer to get it right first time. Many clients don't know which company is delivering their order, but if something goes wrong it's the store where you bought the item which usually gets the blame.
"Your main point of contact is with the retailer," says Wilding. "And they're handing over responsibility for the delivery to another organisation. You've got to make sure they do it well. If they do, it will build loyalty and generate more business. But if you do it badly and use poor couriers it will cost your business an awful lot and customers won't come back."
Tracking technology can be used in other ways too. How about tracking the customer?
Blackbay, a company providing services to courier firms, has developed a smartphone app which enables delivery firms to find their customer even if they're not at the address they said they'd be at.
'My parcel arrived a year late'
Fiona contacted Radio 4's PM programme with her delivery drama.
My friend in New Zealand sent me a Christmas present in plenty of time. It arrived in the UK pronto, but I was out when Royal Mail tried to deliver it.
A card was left. I went to the depot to get it and was told it was too early to get it... come back tomorrow.
I went back the next day and they could not find it - "Leave it a week, please." A week later, and after a few unanswered phone calls, I went back again. Still missing.
I went back a few days later, after phoning yet again and being told to come and get the parcel.
Next day, I arrived at the depot, queued again and was told that because I had left it so long before collection, it had been sent back to New Zealand. Really. It had.
More than two months later and my friend in New Zealand was out when they tried to deliver it, but they left a card and he was excited that someone had sent him something.
Recovering from his disappointment, he decided to put it in his suitcase next time he came to the UK, but his luggage was lost.
I did get it in the end. A year after he posted it.
In case you are dying to know, it was a lovely shoe. Just one. Art, you know.
"The technology is quite straightforward," say Nigel Doust from Blackbay. "We're taking advantage of social media. Lots of people on Facebook or Twitter for instance can expose their location in a controlled way. This application uses that information to track you."
A customer specifies a delivery address but decides nearer to the delivery time that they'll be somewhere else to take delivery. Using the app they can allow the courier to track them using their handheld device to another location within a close distance of the delivery address.
Safeguards can be built in which limit the time someone can be tracked for, and who can actually track them. Also face recognition technology and a requirement for the customer to use a PIN number can be incorporated to ensure the parcel is delivered to the right person.
At the moment the app is still in development, but Blackbay believe it will be available to courier firms and clients within a year. Of course, initially at least, such a service would come with a premium.
Ultimately the solution to missed deliveries is likely to be a combination of low and high tech innovations. From neighbour delivery, to better communication with customers, to GPS tracking, slowly the misery of wasted time and wasted journeys to depots to collect parcels will hopefully become a thing of the past.
And fewer wasted journeys will also help to save the environment. Studies by Heriot Watt University have found a courier could try around 18 times to deliver a parcel and still use less CO2 than someone driving to their local depot to collect it.
All post by me in Green are Admin Posts.
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My sharing of news articles should not be interpreted as an endorsement or condemnation of any particular viewpoint or the issues presented. I share them solely for informational purposes.
Any post in any other colour is my own responsibility.
If you like a news story I posted please click the link to show support Any news stories you can't post - PM me with a link
My sharing of news articles should not be interpreted as an endorsement or condemnation of any particular viewpoint or the issues presented. I share them solely for informational purposes.
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Straight4ward
- EX ROYAL MAIL
- Posts: 1621
- Joined: 25 Oct 2009, 14:32
- Gender: Male
Re: The parcel conundrum
Personally, as the driver with the parcel, I'd like GPS tracking of the customer, so I could see where they were at all times.The company devised an online tracking system using GPS which allows customers to see where the driver with their parcel is all the time.
"Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway."
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fishtank
- Posts: 19732
- Joined: 28 Sep 2007, 17:22
- Gender: Male
Re: The parcel conundrum
Since when?TrueBlueTerrier wrote:if something goes wrong it's the store where you bought the item which usually gets the blame.
I know for a fact that a certain satellite t.v. provider has a CSR policy of blaming Royal Mail even when they haven't sent the item out,i know they are not the only company that does this....
good times, bad times you know I've had my share
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TrueBlueTerrier
- FORUM ADMINISTRATOR
- Posts: 72741
- Joined: 30 Dec 2006, 10:29
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- Location: On my couch
Re: The parcel conundrum
Ummmmm - in a previous life as a phone drone for a mail order company I can confirm that its an industry standard. Sorryfishtank wrote:Since when?TrueBlueTerrier wrote:if something goes wrong it's the store where you bought the item which usually gets the blame.
I know for a fact that a certain satellite t.v. provider has a CSR policy of blaming Royal Mail even when they haven't sent the item out,i know they are not the only company that does this....
All post by me in Green are Admin Posts.
Any post in any other colour is my own responsibility.
If you like a news story I posted please click the link to show support Any news stories you can't post - PM me with a link
My sharing of news articles should not be interpreted as an endorsement or condemnation of any particular viewpoint or the issues presented. I share them solely for informational purposes.
Any post in any other colour is my own responsibility.
If you like a news story I posted please click the link to show support Any news stories you can't post - PM me with a link
My sharing of news articles should not be interpreted as an endorsement or condemnation of any particular viewpoint or the issues presented. I share them solely for informational purposes.
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RedBagMan
- Posts: 1010
- Joined: 01 Aug 2010, 17:53
- Gender: Male
- Location: Behind the lens
Re: The parcel conundrum
Put me right if I'm wrong - but I believe RM are going to issue stickers for peeps to put on their doors if they're happy with parcels being left with a neighbour - why not leave space on said stickers so that the customers can specify (e.g.) up to three named alternative addresses ? Would certainly help both "them and us" as they say ...
A daft example that I know ... on one walk I do I deliver to a school at the start of a walk - but if a parcel for a customer at the end of my walk is a "touch large" ... I can leave it at the school - because customer works there - another (same walk) - delivering to a garage - who's owner lives on a different walk in same office - same deal with big packets.
Again so much depends on local knowledge - but we MUST help customers to help themselves - we need the good press !!
A daft example that I know ... on one walk I do I deliver to a school at the start of a walk - but if a parcel for a customer at the end of my walk is a "touch large" ... I can leave it at the school - because customer works there - another (same walk) - delivering to a garage - who's owner lives on a different walk in same office - same deal with big packets.
Again so much depends on local knowledge - but we MUST help customers to help themselves - we need the good press !!
"We're under model" - oh no we're not - stick your lapse elsewhere ...
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POSTMAN
- SITE ADMINISTRATOR
- Posts: 32803
- Joined: 07 Aug 2006, 03:19
- Gender: Male
Re: The parcel conundrum
Nope,the only stickers 'and you have to opt out' to get them are the don't deliver my s**t to next door ones.RedBagMan wrote:Put me right if I'm wrong - but I believe RM are going to issue stickers for peeps to put on their doors if they're happy with parcels being left with a neighbour - why not leave space on said stickers so that the customers can specify (e.g.) up to three named alternative addresses ? Would certainly help both "them and us" as they say ...
If you don't opt out,your neighbours gets your s**t.
I Wrote-During Covid-Which is still relevant now
It's good to get these types of threads, the ridiculous my manager said bollox, so we can reassure ourselves that while the world is falling apart, Royal Mail managers are still being the low-life C***S they have always been.
My BFF Clash
The daily grind of having to argue your case with an intellectual pigmy of a line manager is physically and emotionally draining.
It's good to get these types of threads, the ridiculous my manager said bollox, so we can reassure ourselves that while the world is falling apart, Royal Mail managers are still being the low-life C***S they have always been.
My BFF Clash
The daily grind of having to argue your case with an intellectual pigmy of a line manager is physically and emotionally draining.
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delboy1969
- Posts: 95
- Joined: 03 Feb 2012, 17:40
- Gender: Male
Re: The parcel conundrum
I ordered something online the other day and wasn't sure how big the item would be, I noticed a comment box whilst I placed my order and wrote 'please leave outside flat door if too big for letterbox'. this was printed out and stuck on the front of the package under my address. The item was delivered today and left outside my flat door (although bizarrely the postie did 739!!! then wrote on the package to ignore!). People just don't think when ordering stuff! I usually get bigger items sent to my mums for example.
However it was nice to see a customer with some common sense this week. He'd obviously been on the sherry online ordering shedloads of stuff. Yesterday he stuck a note on the door asking me to leave it with a neighbour across the road who was in and today there was no note but he was in! Simple all goods arrived and delivered!
Maybe RM could produce some kind of leaflet with regards to parcel deliveries. I don't think the neighbour thing is the way forward and I am not going out of my way knocking on loads of doors, did that when I was multi drop driving and its very frustrating!
However it was nice to see a customer with some common sense this week. He'd obviously been on the sherry online ordering shedloads of stuff. Yesterday he stuck a note on the door asking me to leave it with a neighbour across the road who was in and today there was no note but he was in! Simple all goods arrived and delivered!
Maybe RM could produce some kind of leaflet with regards to parcel deliveries. I don't think the neighbour thing is the way forward and I am not going out of my way knocking on loads of doors, did that when I was multi drop driving and its very frustrating!